Books of 2007

I've misrepresented myself. I love to read. And not only as a way to put myself to sleep.

I wanted to compile a list of everything I've read with reviews and links and all that stuff, but that's proven to be WAAAAAY too much work. So here's the list haphazard as it may be. If you want more info about anything, leave a comment and I'll be more verbose.

Here's what I can remember reading so far in 2007:

1. Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (*****): Fascinating read.

2. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (NF-Memoir ****): Blogging and french cooking. You must have the ability to stomach A LOT of strong language to get through this book.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird (*****) This book gets better every time I read it.

4. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (NF ****)

5. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (Historical Fiction ***)6. Mary: A Novel (Historical Fiction ****)

7. The Girls: Lori Lansens (*****) Craniopagus siamese twin girls convince you they've lived a normal life. Beautiful writing.

8. Dave Barry's Guide to Money (HUMOR **) that's not the real name, but I'm too lazy to look it up. We "read" this book on CD while we drove cross country. It's Dave Barry. And he's funny. That's it.

9. Bridge to Terabithia (****)

10. The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath (**) I really wanted to like this book.

11. The Radioactive Boyscout (*)

12. The Lightening Theif, Rick Riordan (J Fiction *****) This is the first in a really funny series that sets characters from Greek Myths in modern days. Highly recommend.

13. Good Wives (NF ****) This book is a good read, but it's much more scholarly (and not in a good way) than her A Midwife's Tale that I read and was inspired by in 2006.

14. A Drowned Maiden's Hair (YA ***)

15. The Memory Keeper's Daughter (*) O.Press.Ive. I had such a hard time with this dark, dark book.

16. The Secrets of A Fire King (Short Stories) This book is also by Kim Edwards who wrote #15. She has a real talent for holding an image in your mind, so I thought I might like her short stories better. And I did.

17. Framed (J Fiction *****) this one is pure fun about how great works of art bring life and joy to a tiny English town.

18. A Dance for Three by Louise Plummer (**)

19. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (*****) I thought it was the right ending for the series and it kept me reading and reading and reading and reading

20. The Botany of Desire (NF ***) This was ok. I feel a little guilty that my favorite part was learning how to cultivate marijuana

21. The Thirteenth Tale (*****) Couldn't put this one down

22. The Ladies Auxiliary (*****) Led the discussion in my book group for this gem. The women in this book are Jewish in Memphis Tennessee, but the totally sound like an LDS Relief Society. Poignant and funny at the same time.

23. Middlesex (*****) Strange that this one is right after the more churchy book and I gave this one 5 stars, too. Because it's about a hermaphrodite. And it is brilliant. The strange anatomy is downplayed because truly it's a book about finding connections with other humans. Read this book.

24. Parallel Play (**)

25. Stormbreaker (YA Graphic Novel **)

26. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (***) I think I like her name the best, but this book is good, too.

27. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (***) This is soooooo different than his other books in a good way. Post apoctalyptic isn't usually my favorite, but this one's ok.

28. The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (*) yeah right

29. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency (***) couldn't get over the structure. But it's fun.

30. My Sister's Keeper (****) Probably my favorite Jodi Picoult book

31. Welcome to Higby (*) Same author as Ella Minnow Pea, less original.

And some books I didn't make it through:
The 10th Circle
The Folded World
The Corrections
Uglies
The Loud Silence of Francene Green
The Beach House
The Alchymist's Journal

Plus some that I'm excited for:
Lottery
Austenland
Wicked (I'm on page 3)
March

And of course, picture books that we've liked this year:
Grumpy Bird
Not a Box
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend
The Perfect Nest
Hunches in Bunches
Sleeping Ugly

Somewhere in the world there is a woman with a cute wash and wear hairstyle and I want it

Whoever said that short hair is easier to maintain is wrong.

And whoever said that it's just hair and it will grow back was also wrong.

I want my ponytail back and I want it now. I do not want this cute A-line Katie Holmes-esque bob that is the fifth cut on the road from Natalie Portman back to the mom whose-long-hair-although-not-very-clean-is-at least-up-in-a-ponytail-out-of-her-eyes. With this blog as my witness, I will never copy cat a celebrity hairstyle again.

I'm cranky (even with all the nice comments everyone left me for WFMW) because my mother-in-law is out of town and that means I'm that in addition to herding kids away from the least sharp edges of a very un-kidfriendly house, keeping breakables intact, cleaning around other people's stuff, and cooking for my family as well as my father-in-law and sister-in-law: both of whom can't make a sandwhich.

And because I'm living a lie. See, I started this blog to "keep up with technology" and I've been so proud of my links and my blogroll. But today it took me 15 minutes to reprogram the clock on the microwave. Then Deirdre crawled over, pounded on the laptop once, and taught me there's a button on the keyboard that brings up the calculator on the computer screen. Genius. I had no idea.

So I'm a phoney. With really bad hair.